Paul Baumer

Paul Baumer (1900-10 October 1918) was an Imperial German Army lieutenatn who served on the Western Front of World War I. He was killed in action at the Battle of Cambrai.

Biography
Paul Baumer was born in Germany in 1900, and he and his high school classmates Albert Kropp, Joseph Behm, Friedrich Muller, Franz Kemmerich, and Peter Leer were convinced to join the Imperial German Army in 1918 by their nationalistic teacher Kantorek. They were assigned to Lieutenant Stanislaus Katzinsky's 2nd Company on the Western Front in France, and, over the next few weeks, Baumer watched as most of his friends were killed in action; Baumer himself felt guilty after bayonetting a French Army soldier to death. He returned home on furlough to visit his mother, who was ill with cancer, and, shortly after Baumer's return to the front lines, Katzinsky was killed by shrapnel. Baumer was promoted to Lieutenant, succeeding Katzinsky; he and his amputee friend Kropp were now the only survivors of the original squad. During the Battle of Cambrai in October 1918, Baumer was shot dead by a sniper after rising from his trench to observe a bird which he had been sketching.